George Takei Pranks Twitter with April Fool's Congressional Run

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Oh, my.

"Star Trek" star George Takei sent Twitter into a frenzy Saturday after retweeting a “bombshell” announcement: He’s running for Congress in 2018 to unseat embattled California representative and House Intelligence Committe Chairman Devin Nunes.

“Well, the cat's out of the bag it seems,” he posted on Twitter with the hashtag #Takei2018.

While some fans debated the suspicious timing of the tweet — if it’s midnight on the East Coast, does it count as April Fool's Day on the West Coast? — social media exploded with the news. The hashtag #Takei2018 began trending, and the actor's timeline was flooded with congratulations — some from other celebrities and politicians.

@GeorgeTakei I hope you can count me as one of your early endorsers!! This is great news!

But, as some had suspected, it was all an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke. Takei, 79, later clarified that he had posted it to call attention to Georgia's upcoming special election in which Democratic hopeful Jon Ossoff hopes to fill the congressional seat left vacant by the new health and human services secretary, Tom Price.